Please recommend a scanner for 35mm and 120 film

Alan Edward Klein said:

Flatbed scanners are calibrated to focus above the glass for film scans and on the glass for reflective (photos and paper). That accounts for the film holder.

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Using an adjustable film holder (like BetterScanning) will help anyone interested find the best platform height for their flatbed scanner, and that level won't be on the glass if you're using an Epson. Having said that though, even if the film elevation is perfectly optimized the quality won't match a Nikon Coolscan. When I did a comparison the difference wasn't as large as what markbau is showing but there was a difference. My conclusion was to keep my Nikon for 35mm scans and use the Epson for MF.

I get VERY sharp scans when I put 8x10 film directly on the glass, (obviously in transmission mode) How does a flatbed scanner change its focus point, it doesn't have a lens, unlike the Coolscan?

A colleague of mine's dad was a WWII photog and he asked me to scan a 4X5 b&w film he had to see what it would look like on an V700. So I scanned it off the glass at 2400dpi.

Full res version -> http://www.fototime.com/5DCEE0B3D75F78C/orig.jpg

I think this looks good.

markbau said:

I get VERY sharp scans when I put 8x10 film directly on the glass, (obviously in transmission mode) How does a flatbed scanner change its focus point, it doesn't have a lens, unlike the Coolscan?

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I was under the impression it couldn't change its focus. (Hence the reason to find the sharpest level for the negative carrier)

I don't think I can change focus on my old Epson 4990, but it seems to locate the emulsion plane for me when using the holder or using the glass.

It doesn't answer the medium format part of the question, but there is a cheap solution to 35mm, and that's the lowly Pacific Image Prime Film scanners. I've run the gamut of scanners, from Pacific Image to a Hasselblad X1. You certainly get what you pay for, but the humble Pacific Image punches above its weight for relatively little cash. I keep one around (off the top of my head I think the model was 3650u) as an ultimate fallback for when I run out of old Macs to operate the X1, and the Nikon 9000 dies like my KonicaMinoltas did. A flatbed scanner does a good enough job on larger negatives so that's probably the cheap solution for 120 film.